Forest Junction to Cedar Falls —Western Home’s First Resident

A new monthly series by villa resident and volunteer Jim Volgarino

Amelia Julia Eckermann, like many native Germans of the time, left her birthplace in Berlin to live in the United States, settling in the small village of Forest Junction, Wisconsin, where at age 31 she married Rev. Fredrick Rust.

He was a traveling pastor associated with the German Evangelical Association and helped establish churches among the growing German populations along Wisconsin’s eastern border with Lake Michigan.

When Rev. Rust died, the 70-year-old Amelia had little family support, as the couple had no children or relatives nearby. The option of living in one of Wisconsin’s almshouses or poor farms was not one she wanted to entertain.

The almshouses had become, over the years, dumping grounds of sorts for people with no means of support, the infirm, the mentally challenged and, in some cases, actual petty criminals. There were no easy solutions for someone like Amelia.

She had heard, through the Evangelical Association, of a new home being constructed in one of the denomination's westernmost states that was going to accept new “inmates” beginning in the summer of 1912. Another Evangelical Association home was located in Ohio, but travel there was expensive. Amelia managed to obtain the $500 needed for admission and moved to Cedar Falls, Iowa, where the newly established Western Old People’s Home was located. She became the first resident on June 18, 1912.

While residents of these elderly care homes were called inmates, a throwback term used for the government-established almshouses, eventually the term was dropped in favor of resident, a much more friendly description of people like Amelia who needed a safe, well-established place where they could live out their lives in a healthy and caring environment.

Amelia lived another 13 years in The Western Old People’s Home before she died. By then, the first addition to the original building at 11th and Irving Streets had been added to accommodate the growing list of people who wanted to make it their home.

Curious to learn more about WHC history? Follow along for Jim’s column each month this year as he uncovers interesting stories by digging into WHC’s treasure trove of archival information dating back to the early 1900s.

The handwritten record of Amelia Rust's admission to The Western Old People's Home from 1912.